


that brown-eyed technopagan

by The_Eclectic_Bookworm



Series: lucky you’re the one i love [2]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)
Genre: (that second tag's for jenny/giles obvs), Gen, One-Sided Attraction, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-29
Updated: 2018-08-29
Packaged: 2019-07-04 01:45:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,821
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15831210
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Eclectic_Bookworm/pseuds/The_Eclectic_Bookworm
Summary: She guessed that she wouldn’t feel so bad about Ripper liking Jenny if it wasn’t so obvious that Jenny liked Ripper too, even if they were being all slow-burn high-school romantic-comedy about it.(in which jenny is the hot senior girl that willow has a crush on.)





	that brown-eyed technopagan

It was weird, having Ripper hanging around while they went to classes. Buffy tended to treat him like an annoying older brother, and had even gone so far as to shove him out of her American History classroom hissing about how there was _such_ a thing as being overly involved. Xander—well, Xander thought Ripper was _so cool_ with his leather jacket and his guitar and the whole vampire-punching thing he was doing, so Xander didn’t mind Ripper following him around and eating lunch with them to talk about whatever supernatural stuff they were fighting that day.

Willow didn’t mind Ripper hanging around at all until Thursday, when Jenny Calendar gave him the once-over in the hallway.

* * *

 

This was the sort of thing that required some backstory. Jenny Calendar was in her senior year, with shiny dark hair that went all the way down to her waist. She had a belly-button ring that Willow had seen on one of the hot spring days where she tied her button-down up high, she was on the robotics team _and_ the debate team _and_ the baseball team, and she was the prettiest girl in the entire school.

Willow had known Jenny Calendar all of two months, starting when she’d signed up for the robotics team and Jenny Calendar had given everyone a speech about the importance of technology in a modern society. She hadn’t talked to Jenny Calendar _personally,_ though, and as such, Jenny Calendar had reached a near-mythic status in her head; the sort of thing that was reserved for unicorns and fairies and crushes that really couldn’t come to fruition. She contented herself with lingering looks in the hallway, nervous stuttering whenever she thought Jenny Calendar might be listening (Jenny Calendar almost never was), and daydreams in class where Jenny Calendar made out with her and then read her love poetry. You know. Standard crush stuff.

But today, Thursday, Willow was walking with Ripper to the library to pick up some demonology books that Buffy’s now-dead Watcher had left, and Jenny Calendar stalked up to both of them in the middle of the hallway, shoved her textbooks into Ripper so hard that he staggered, and said loudly, “You’ve got some _fucking nerve_ showing up around here, _Rupert_.”

“Oi!” Ripper shoved the books back at Jenny Calendar. “The fuck’s with you?”

“What do you _think_ ,” said Jenny Calendar, flipping her shiny dark hair over her shoulder and giving Ripper a furious glare. “That whole schtick about how you don’t want me _hanging around the Magic Box_ when it’s your shift because I’ll _scare away the customers—”_

“You were _looking shifty,”_ Ripper shot back.

“—and now you show up _at my school_ and fucking  _stare_ at me?”

“Wasn’t  _staring,_ ” said Ripper, but there was a dull flush in his cheeks.

“I’d better get a discount from you when I’m getting stuff for my next casting, that’s all I’m saying,” said Jenny Calendar fiercely. “I hope a vampire _eats your face off._ ”

Ripper flipped her off British-style and, attempting to walk away while still maintaining eye contact, walked backwards into a locker. Stumbling, he hastened to right himself, then skulked off in the direction of the library.

Nervously, Willow looked over at Jenny Calendar and saw that her expression had changed. It was the sort of subtle change that would be detected only by someone who made it a habit of staring at Jenny Calendar’s face a lot, and it was a change that Willow didn’t like: Jenny was biting her lip, eyes half-lidded, gaze on Ripper. Well, not on Ripper _specifically—_

“It is criminal,” said Jenny Calendar to herself, “that an ass like that belongs to—well. An ass like that.” Then she shifted her books in her arms and headed off towards her math class.

Willow looked after Jenny Calendar, then after Ripper, then kicked a locker very hard and stubbed her toe.

* * *

 

“You don’t _like_ Jenny Calendar, do you?” said Willow in the library.

“Who?” said Ripper. Then, “Oh—Janna. Piece of fucking work, that one,” but his cheeks had gone all red again.

* * *

 

“Look, it’s not that I care about who he likes, because I _don’t,_ because I don’t care about _him,_ but I just think that someone should _tell him_ that Jenny Calendar is _way too nice_ for him to be mean to, and anyway if she got that mad at him he _totally_ deserved it and he shouldn’t be upsetting her like that just because he thinks she’s hot, which she _is,_ but that’s not the _point_ —”

“Back up, Will,” said Buffy, her mouth twitching. “Ripper showed an emotion?”

“Who  _cares,_ ” said Willow furiously.

“I mean, I do, a little,” said Buffy, who now sounded like she was trying not to giggle. “Usually he plays up the whole Tough-Badass-In-A-Band thing and doesn’t yell at anyone. He just…sulks. He seriously yelled at Jenny Calendar in the middle of the hallway?”

“She was yelling first,” said Willow, then, “and Buffy, you’re not _listening—”_

“I’m honestly not sure what you’re upset about,” said Buffy, frowning a little. “I mean—Ripper having beef with Jenny Calendar isn’t the best thing ever, but it does kinda make sense. They’re both pretty fighty people.”

“Jenny Calendar isn’t _fighty,_ ” said Willow, affronted. “She’s _kind._ And _sweet._ ”

Buffy gave Willow a long look. Then she said, “One time Jenny Calendar and I got into this huge raging argument when she saw me with Angel, because she said I shouldn’t be seeing older guys, and then I said what did she know, she’s got a belly-button corkscrew and she joins too many extracurriculars, and we yelled at each other for fifteen minutes before we gave up and just went out for ice cream. She’s definitely a nice person—she’s one of the coolest people I’ve met since coming here—but she’s one hundred percent the exact same kind of fighty as Ripper.”

“You went out for ice cream with Jenny Calendar?” said Willow, wounded. “And didn’t invite me?”

“I think you’re kinda missing the point here,” said Buffy.

* * *

 

Jenny Calendar showed up in their lives again when they were all running from Evil Praying Mantis Lady, and she showed up with a tape recording. “Bat sonar, dumbass,” she said, tossing it to Ripper once Xander was hacking away at the praying mantis. “Read a book once in your life, why don’t you?”

“Is Little Miss Technopagan trying to teach _me_ how to read?” scoffed Ripper. “I was gonna be a _Watcher,_ remember?”

“Do you tell that to everyone you meet, or just the hot girls?” retorted Jenny Calendar.

“Just the hot girls,” Ripper snapped, then went _bright_ red.

Jenny Calendar smirked like she’d won and took out her phone, snapping a few pictures of the praying mantis. “For research,” she said to Willow. “I’m trying to compile an online database for supernatural knowledge seekers.”

“That’s really cool,” said Willow breathlessly, stunned that Jenny Calendar was _speaking_ to her.

“Willow, right?” Jenny Calendar’s smile had softened, and she’d pocketed her phone. “You’re that sweet, smart kid who always gets all quiet when I come around to check out people’s projects. Kinda thought you didn’t like me.”

“No!” Willow’s voice squeaked. She winced, nervous that she was blushing almost as much as Ripper (who appeared to be taking out his mortification on what was left of the praying mantis), and added, “Um, I just—you’re really cool, that’s all, I—felt like such a dork, a-and my programs aren’t _half_ as well-crafted as yours—”

“Please,” said Jenny Calendar, waving a hand. “My programs are decent. Yours are _well_ beyond what I was coding freshman year. You’ve got some crazy talent there, Willow.”

“Oh,” said Willow. Yep, she was blushing. “That’s—good.”

Jenny Calendar patted Willow on the shoulder, then went up to Ripper and tapped his shoulder. “Hey, loser, you’re kinda hot too,” she said. “Just to clarify. You want to stop beating that demon into pulp so I can take a few more pictures?”

“I’m not dating anyone at the moment,” said Ripper stiffly.

“Jesus, you’re so fucking _British,_ ” said Jenny Calendar. “You think I want to date you just because I said you’re hot? I can’t _stand_ you.”

Willow tried to dwell on the _I can’t stand you_ part and not the _you’re kinda hot too_ part. It didn’t really work.

* * *

 

They were all hanging at the Bronze a few nights later for a gig Ripper was playing. Most of the songs were pretty horrible, in Willow’s opinion, but Xander thought they were cool, so he always insisted on dragging everyone down to show support for Ripper (who tried to act like he didn’t care whether or not they came, but Willow always saw the way he looked for them in the crowd). She was starting to get used to the roar of too-loud speakers and the off-key singing of the lead vocalist, but the next song that came on was Ripper’s, and a line made Willow’s stomach twist.

 _“She won’t be needing savin’,_ ” he sang-shouted, _“that brown-eyed technopagan.”_

Buffy started giggling. “ _Savin’_ and _technopagan_ don’t rhyme!” she managed, then, “ _God,_ I’m gonna make so much fun of him after this.”

There was only one brown-eyed technopagan Willow knew. She sipped at her Coke, feeling more and more miserable by the minute.

* * *

 

She guessed she wouldn’t feel so bad about Ripper liking Jenny if it wasn’t so obvious that Jenny liked Ripper too, even if they were being all slow-burn high-school romantic-comedy about it. Ripper stopped by the school after robotics club to pick Willow up and drive her home in his beat-up Citroen, and sometimes Jenny would ride with them too, both of them fighting over the radio in the front seat just so that their hands could brush a few times. Jenny had somehow acquired a T-shirt for Ripper’s band, and hastily hid it under her leather jacket on the days she wore it and he showed up.

She guessed she wouldn’t feel so bad if it just didn’t make so much _sense._ They were similar, smart and angry and a little bitter, and it was clear they liked spending time with each other just as much as they did fighting with each other. It made Willow feel like even if she was a senior like Jenny, even if she had long, soft hair and big, pretty eyes like the magazine-cutout girls glued to Jenny’s binder, Jenny would still choose Ripper over her without thinking twice.

* * *

 

“Hey, listen,” said Buffy, catching up to her after patrol one night. Willow was watching Jenny and Ripper walk ahead, arguing about some album or another in the fierce, friendly way they’d fall into when they thought no one was looking. “I know you like Jenny a bunch, but—it’s just making you sad, Will, and I don’t like seeing you this sad.”

“It’s not like I can just turn off liking her,” said Willow dismally, looking at the blue-black shine of Jenny’s hair in the moonlight. She was smiling, wary and sweet, up at Ripper as they walked, like a part of her didn’t like taking her eyes off him for too long. Willow would have given anything in the world to be looked at like that by Jenny Calendar, and what was Ripper doing? Staring straight ahead like he didn’t even see her. “She’s the prettiest girl I’ve ever met.”

“Prettier than me?” Buffy teased. Off Willow’s look, she sighed. “I just—want you to be happy,” she said. “That’s all.”

Nothing, Willow thought, could ever make her happy while Ripper was all but dating the girl of her dreams. “I don’t know,” she began.

“—wait, shit, let me ask Willow,” Jenny was saying, tugging at Ripper’s upper arm to make him stop. Immediately, Ripper jerked his arm away, running a hand shakily through his hair. Jenny turned a nervous pink, but didn’t comment, keeping a bright smile on her face as she turned. “Willow!” she called. “Willow, you up for Bronzing it? Ripper says he can get us in if we’re careful—”

“Okay,” said Willow. She could see the lingering hurt in Jenny’s eyes from Ripper’s brush-off, and a fantasy was already constructing itself, one where they Bronzed it up and Jenny revealed that Ripper wasn’t emotionally mature enough to fill her womanly needs (hey, she’d been reading a lot of fanfiction lately) and they kissed passionately on the dance floor.

You know. Something romantic like that.

“Hang on, Janna, I need t’ speak to Willow for a sec,” said Ripper suddenly, still with that strange expression on his face. “D’you mind?”

“What—no, no, it’s whatever, it’s fine,” said Jenny a little too sharply, her smile strangely plastic as she hurried towards the car. Buffy frowned a little, then followed her, leaving Willow alone with Ripper and that odd expression.

“Listen,” Ripper began.

“She likes you, you know,” said Willow, the words bubbling out of her before she could stop them. “She likes you a lot.”

Ripper shoved his hands into his pockets. His mouth trembled. “Kinda figured,” he said.

“And you can’t keep just—just messing her around or whatever you’re doing,” said Willow, “because she deserves better than that.”

“Willow,” said Ripper, “I wanna tell you something that she doesn’t know. That—no one knows, really, I only told Buffy last week.”

A small, spiteful part of Willow thought _this is something I can use._ She shoved it back down to wherever it was she’d been hiding it; Jenny Calendar wouldn’t date a girl who thought like that. “What?” she said, wary.

Ripper hesitated, then said, “I raised a demon in college. ‘S why I didn’t go back—it killed someone. Nearly killed me _and_ the rest of the casters.” He rolled up his sleeve all the way to the place Jenny had touched, revealing a tattoo in inky black. “Thing is,” he said, “the bloke I was dating—Ethan—he was—” He swallowed, hard. He looked like he was trying not to cry, which frightened Willow; the picture of Ripper she’d constructed ever since Jenny had liked him, it was of a hard, disinterested bad boy, one too cool for devastation or loss or guilt. “He was the biggest reason I liked raising demons so much,” he said. “And even after someone _died—_ that wasn’t enough for me to stop loving him. I don’t think I choose good people to love.”

“Jenny’s good people,” said Willow, small and stubborn.

“Yeah,” said Ripper simply. “She’s much too good for me.” He managed a crooked smile, then scrubbed roughly at his face. “And anyway,” he said. “We’ve got work to do, haven’t we?” Without waiting for an answer, he turned, trudging silently towards the car.

Willow watched him go, feeling strange and guilty, because—Ripper wasn’t better than her. Ripper didn’t possess some indefinable quality that she didn’t. Ripper wasn’t that magical, mythical figure who swept in and got the girl at the last second, Ripper was just a _person._ And so was Jenny.

* * *

 

Ripper played a softer and more acoustic version of the song for Jenny, picking up a guitar at the now-deserted Bronze and giving the Scoobies a private one-man show.

“ _Savin’_ and _technopagan_ don’t rhyme,” said Jenny when he was done, but she had that same look in her eyes that she’d had watching him walk away. She was biting her lip.

“Everyone’s a bloody critic,” Ripper muttered, placing the guitar down and hopping off the stage to snag a brownie from the snack bag Buffy had brought.

Jenny watched him for a moment, then headed over to stand next to Willow. “He tell you anything I should know?” she asked, quiet and conspiratorial, in the way that Willow had always wanted: her and Jenny Calendar with secrets to share.

But Willow thought about the tears in Ripper’s eyes, and the way Jenny smiled at him, and—she couldn’t mess with something like that, not if she _really_ cared. And she did. They were her friends, before anything else. “He’ll tell you when he’s ready,” she said, and it felt right.

Jenny looked at her for another moment, and then she said, “You’re a good kid, Willow. You’re gonna make some lucky girl really happy.”

“What?” said Willow, blushing furiously.

And Jenny Calendar, prettiest girl in Sunnydale High, leaned down and kissed Willow on the cheek. “I’m serious about those programs,” she said, ruffling Willow’s hair. “You’ve got talent. Let me know if you ever need a tutor or, you know, whatever.” After another moment, she turned towards the Scoobies, hurrying to sit down next to Buffy. “Xander,” she started indignantly, “don’t eat _all_ the snacks—”

With a somewhat shaky hand, Willow touched the place where Jenny’s lipstick had smudged on her cheek. She smiled, soft and slow, and then she walked over to sit with her friends and eat brownies.


End file.
